Augmented Embodiment: Developing Interactive Technology for Stroke Survivors

This paper describes an interactive scenography designed to enhance the use of embodied imagination in a stroke survivors' performance workshop called The Green Screening workshop, conceived by the company Split Britches. We explore performance techniques combined with live motion capture to provide participants with an abstract visual world that helps them to enact fantasy scenes they create in front of an audience. A simple interface provides real-time visualisations of participant's body movements in three different scenarios and promotes engagement with the co-present audience. The system was evaluated in two workshops with stroke survivors. The results indicate that the system is effective in encouraging participants' creative use of embodied improvisation.